


To Know You Is To Love You

by they_hear_the_music



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Celtic Mythology AU, M/M, Nonbinary Character if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-28 08:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5085097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/they_hear_the_music/pseuds/they_hear_the_music
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grantaire drew his brows together, annoyance clear on his face. "I'm not gonna cause trouble for myself to further one of your hopeless causes! I'm not your curse positivity poster child, I told you that!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Know You Is To Love You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fahrouche](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fahrouche/gifts).



> im not 100% sure if this is what you wanted but i hope you like it anyway :>  
> also i hope you can all excuse the mistakes that ive overlooked i didnt have a beta this time...

Enjolras was sitting in the Musian back room going over his notes when he heard the door being opened and someone slipping inside.

"Aengus!"

Enjolras' head shot up at the resented nickname and for a second he glared at Grantaire before he noticed the black eye.

"Gods, Grantaire," he exclaimed before he could stop himself.

For a second Grantaire seemed confused then his hand shot up to his face, carefully touching the skin around the bruise.

"Oh yeah, this. Quite the shiner isn't it?" He laughed. "Nothing to worry about, don't even ask. You should see the other guy!" Grantaire told him with a grin, sliding into his usual seat in the back.

Enjolras wanted to say something but - as per usual - outside of an argument he just didn't really seem to find the right words. They weren't alone like this very often, both preferring the buffer their friends provided, and Enjolras wished he wouldn't feel so weird and on edge about spending a few minutes alone with Grantaire.

"I should have known there is no way to be earlier than you," Grantaire said, probably mostly to fill the silence.

Enjolras gave an awkward nod at that, watching Grantaire place his pumpkin lantern on the table. Grantaire had always been very in-your-face with his curse, openly showing off his jack-o'lantern that marked him as 'hated by even death' according to what the general public liked to assume. In truth Grantaire had inherited his curse after his father's death, when he had been around 15 years old. Grantaire refused to hide the pumpkin in bags or under tables like most people did, caring it always visible at his side. Enjolras had used to think that Grantaire simply didn't care what people thought about him, only with time realizing the special brand of courage Grantaire had and needed to face the world every day. It wasn't unlikely that Grantaire had once again gotten into a fight over this and Enjolras felt a familiar rage and possessiveness at the thought.

"You're staring, Aengus."

Enjolras blinked. Grantaire was right and he hurriedly turned back to his notes, hoping Grantaire wouldn't notice the blush coloring his cheeks.

"So," Grantaire spoke up again a few seconds later. "How are we planing to save the world today?"

"If you're talking about the topic of todays meeting, Combeferre send you an e-mail about that. Did you not read it?"

Grantaire just shrugged. "Didn't really have the time."

Enjolras frowned wondering what could have kept Grantaire busy enough to not read the three line e-mail Combeferre had send out. Since Grantaire seemed to have made it his life's mission to find the holes in Enjolras arguments, especially the ones Enjolras did not want to admit were there, he usually came prepared in one way or another.

Grantaire seemed to have taken Enjolras' frown as a sign of annoyance. "No need to make a face," he mumbled under his breath before continuing the conversation, leaving Enjolras no room to correct him. "Do you know if Jehan heard back from the temple? Last thing I heard they wanted to start out as a Filid but I didn't really get any updates after that."

Enjolras smiled. "They're supposed to get called back until the end of the week. They said their last interview went well."

"Thats good to hear," Grantaire said.

There were a few seconds of silence again.

"How come you're here so early today?" Enjolras asked more to just say something than anything else.

Grantaire thought about his answer for a few beats. "Got fired again," he finally settled on, crossing his arms before his chest looking at Enjolras as if he was daring him to blame Grantaire for it. One day soon Grantaire was gonna have to realize that Enjolras knew him better than that now.

"On what grounds?" he asked.

"A costumer complained that the coffee I made tasted 'cursed' and when I told him that that's not a thing he called for the manager."

"And you got fired for that? Grantaire, they can't do something like that!"

Grantaire made a dismissing gesture. "Let it go, Aengus. I already called Cosette and took her up on her offer to talk to her dad about that job opening he had."

That was good to hear. Valjean was a good man and would treat Grantaire fairly.

"Still, firing you for being cursed is literally against the law! They shouldn't get away with it," Enjolras said vehemently.

Grantaire sighed. "You keep living in that dream world of yours then. In reality no one is gonna back this up. Cursed people are mistrusted by too many."

"Not everyone thinks that way, though," Enjolras replied carefully. Grantaire wasn't wrong and acceptance for cursed people was one of the things The ABC was fighting for.

Grantaire drew his brows together, annoyance clear on his face. "I'm not gonna cause trouble for myself to further one of your hopeless causes! I'm not your curse positivity poster child, I told you that!"

"Of course not, that's not even what I- Look you're my friend and all I wanted to do was help," Enjolras told him. Why Grantaire always assumed the worst when it came to Enjolras was a mystery to him.

Grantaire shook his head. "That's nice of you, Aengus, but the world is unchangeable in its core and you can rattle the bars all you want in the end it's gonna take you nowhere."

Okay, that metaphor was just all over the place. Enjolras decided not to comment on it.

"That's where you're wrong! The world _is_ changing," Enjolras told him. "Not in the way it's talked about in the media, there still are so many issues to resolve, so many causes to fight for, but change is in the air! More people than ever are outraged about the state our society is in, and even more are going to be. The people in office can't ignore this forever. We need to demand change if we want to see it happen and we need to demand it now."

Grantaire blinked in surprise before he slowly shook his head again. "You're deluding yourself."

"You're the one deluding yourself," Enjolras shot back. "It is already happening. Laws are being passed in support of cursed people and others are changed to end exclusion."

"Acceptance comes and goes, Aengus, but it never stays. For every changed law there are gonna be new laws and legislations making life harder for cursed people. It's the same with the racism against Dullahans or Banshees, that doesn't seem to be going anywhere either. I mean take passports for example. The cases of Dullahan identity theft or fraud are not even in the two digit numbers over the course of the last fifteen years and still they're being forced to tattoo numbers on their skin so they can be identified. This is not something society would let happen to any Aos Sí, people would take to the streets, but they let it happen to the Dullahans because they're 'death omens' and 'can't be trusted' and, yeah, saying stuff like that now marks you as a racist but the laws supporting that mindset are _still there_. And it's the same with everything else. Maybe cursed people don't have to reveal themselves to be cursed for job interviews, or whatever they changed now, but it's not like it isn't painfully obvious that I have to carry a fucking pumpkin everywhere I go and you can't tell me that people will just suddenly stop treating me differently for it."

"Not all of them, no," Enjolras said. "But there are more and more willing to change! To take to the street and stand up to these injustices!"

Grantaire looked at him for a long moment, an unreadable expression on his face. "It makes no sense to me how you can be so obviously blind and yet so convincing, Aengus." His eyes were still fixed on Enjolras. "I almost wanna hope you're right." he said, a small smile appearing on his lips sending a shiver down Enjolras' spine.

Enjolras opened his mouth unsure what to reply but feeling the need to say _something_ , when the door flew open and Bahorel, Eponine and Courfeyrac came in. Bahorel was in the middle of a story about one of his latest pranks, all big arm movements and booming voice as if he wanted to compensate for his hight by taking up the maximum amount of space he was capable of with his three feet four, which was actually pretty tall for a Leprechaun. Enjolras wasn't sure if he was glad or not that they had been interrupted and focused instead on releasing the breath he hadn't even realized he was holding.

Eponine slid in the seat next to Grantaire and took off her sun glasses, revealing her completely red eyes. She usually wore them everywhere only taking them off where she felt save enough to openly show that she was a Banshee.

“Fuck, 'Aire, your eye!” she breathed.

Grantaire just waved her off, signaling to her and the other two that he was fine and that it wasn't worth a fuss.

Feuilly and Jehan were the next to come in, Jehan carrying Feuilly's head since the Dullahan had his hands full with binders. He placed them on Enjolras' table before signing a general 'hello' at the room. Bossuet, Musichetta, Marius and Cosette came in shortly after, appearing to have spend the day together, presumably on a double date. The last to come in were Combeferre and Joly, both a bit delayed by their duties for the temple this week.

With them all finally here the meeting started, today mostly led by Combeferre this week, who was talking about income inequality between Aos Sí and humans and within the Aos Sí community. Together with Feuilly he had designed rough drafts of flyers, educating about the magnitude of the problem and they spend the rest of the meeting improving and refining these drafts.

 

Enjolras and Grantaire ended up arguing again, because of course they did. Maybe it was just his imagination or wishful thinking, but Enjolras could have sworn that his time they both seemed to speak softer than usual, both not being as hard on the other as they normally would have been. Through out the whole night Enjolras couldn't get the expression on Grantaire's face out his his head, when he had admitted to Enjolras giving him a sense of hope and every time it resurfaced in his memories his heart picked up the pace. He wanted to ask Grantaire what he meant, at the same time being afraid of the answer. Grantaire couldn't mean what Enjolras wanted him to mean, Grantaire maybe believing in Enjolras was already something nearly impossible, for Grantaire to reciprocate the horrible crush Enjolras had on Grantaire was just too unlikely. And yet, the way Grantaire had looked at him - if Enjolras hadn't imagined it - it surely had to mean something.

The meeting ended with Bossuet almost spilling her hot chocolate on her laptop, in the last second saved by her seer girlfriend.

"I swear like 50% of my predictions are about you breaking things," Musichetta exclaimed fondly.

"What can I say?" Bossuet replied with a sly grin. "I like being on your mind." For which she got an eye-roll and kiss on the cheek.

They all started collecting their things after that, Grantaire being the first to get up. Enjolras' eyes were on him as Enjolras shouldered his bag, heading out with Combeferre and Courfeyrac at his sides. Neither of his best friends said a word when they reached the street and Enjolras stopped to look after Grantaire. He was walking alone one arm holding his pumpkin to his chest, the other hand buried deep in his pocket against the cold. Enjolras watched the wind ruffling Grantaire's black curls and he made a decision. With hurried steps he followed Grantaire, his heart hammering in his chest.

Grantaire noticed him when Enjolras was about a step away. He stopped, turning around and blinking in surprise. "What is it, Aengus? Did I leave something behind?"

"No, I- erm," Enjolras hadn't thought this through. "About before..." he started unsure where to go from there.

“What about before?” Grantaire seemed defensive, clutching his pumpkin a bit closer to his chest.

"It's just you've never shown any faith in what we're doing," Enjolras said quietly after a few second.

Grantaire stared at him for a second then he dragged a hand down his face. "That's because I don't believe in your causes-"

“Then why-” Enjolras interrupted only to be interrupted himself.

"I believe in you."

Oh.

"Oh," Enjolras said. And he couldn't help but smile a bit at that.

"I honestly thought you knew that," Grantaire said and if Enjolras hadn't known any better he would say Grantaire sounded fond. Fond and a bit sad.

"How should I have known that?" Enjolras asked, shaking his head. "We never- we never really talk. Outside of an argument, I mean. We should do that more often."

Grantaire laughed "Yes, because this isn't incredibly awkward."

"It doesn't have to be," Enjolras told him.

Grantaire slowly let out a deep breath the small smile playing around his lips disappearing. "What if it does? What if we're just not compatible as people and that's just something we have to accept."

"I refuse to believe that," Enjolras said with force.

Grantaire shook his head again. “Of course you do,” he said, his voice sounding a bit strained and a horrible thought dawned on Enjolras' mind.

“Would you rather... would you prefer it if we weren't friends?”

Grantaire's eyes went wide. “No! Oh gods no, Aengus!” he exclaimed, gesticulating wildly. “I can't even begin to tell you how much I don't want that, I mean-”

Enjolras took a careful step towards Grantaire, effectively shutting him up, and when Grantaire made no move to put more space between them Enjolras took another step until he was close enough to feel Grantaire's breath ghosting over Enjolras collarbone. Grantaire's eyes were fixed on Enjolras', his lips parted. Enjolras desperately wished he was better in reading Grantaire's emotions so he could be sure that he was not crossing any boundaries here, but Grantaire just stared back at him, eyes still wide and his breathing uneven.

“Tell me to stop,” Enjolras whispered as he lifted his hand to fit it against Grantaire's cheek.

Grantaire's breathing hitched and he leaned into the touch as Enjolras tilted his own head and pressed his lips onto Grantaire's. If Grantaire made any sound, Enjolras couldn't hear it over the noise of his own heartbeat ponding in his ears, but he felt Grantaire's hand gripping the hem of Enjolras' shirt, pulling him closer as Grantaire moved his pumpkin out of the way and pressed back into the kiss. Enjolras made a breathless noise and let his hands slide into Grantaire's hair, getting a clearly audible moan as an answer.

When they parted Enjolras didn't move far, resting his forehead against Grantaire's.

“Okay,” Grantaire said, sounding out of breath. “So, that happened.”

Enjolras hummed in agreement. “I've been wanting to do that for so long,” he confessed and Grantaire let out a shaky laugh. “Fuck, Enjolras, I've been wanting to do that since we met.”

Enjolras smiled, too giddy and happy right now to acknowledge that that had been five years ago. They could and would talk about unsaid things later. _Grantaire had called him by his name!_

“We should be doing that more often then,” Enjolras said.

“Yeah, sure, why not,” Grantaire said, leaning up to kiss Enjolras again and he could feel Grantaire's smile against his own.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Words that might come in handy:  
> Aengus - basically the celtic Apollo  
> Aos Sí - the fairy folk  
> Banshee - a type of fairy known for their cry. death omen  
> Dullahan - a type of fairy that carries their severed head around with them. death omen  
> Filid - one of the three jobs at temples in celtic religion. poet/philosopher (the other two would be Druid - healer/priest and Vate - healer/philosoper)  
> Jack-O'Lantern - the byname of a protagonist in celtic folklore. cursed by death.  
> Leprechaun - a type of fairy known for hard work and pranks.
> 
> things that i wanted to include in the fic but couldnt find the space:  
> \- Druid!Joly, Vate!Combeferre and Filid!Jehan tag team  
> \- something about the fact that leprechauns love gold and dullahans are supposedly afraid of gold
> 
> i hope you guys enjoyed the thing :>  
> i'm [here on tumblr](http://they-hear-the-music.tumblr.com) come and say hi


End file.
